wrestlingscout's media reviews. From books and documentaries to shoot interviews and matches, I'll review the best (and sometimes the worst) that pro-wrestling has to offer.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Kurt AngleShoot Interview[RF Video]

The Good
I had been putting this one off until I knew I could listen to it in two or three sessions because I knew it would be interesting even if I disagreed with much of Kurt Angle's commentary. The beginning of this was excellent because Kurt Angle's amateur career was so unique, so remarkable and so successful. While RF seemed to only have random questions, Angle's narrative was pretty smooth and thorough. As it got into his professional career, the intrigue level remained. After it got into his first year in the WWF, things were always muddled and confusing. Luckily, Kurt Angle is a good interview and he carried this like many of his matches. While his responses to much of the Internet conjecture that exists about him, his drug problems and his injury issues were interesting, I always had this skepticism in the back of my mind. What ultimately shocked me in this was his comments on psychology. I personally have never found Kurt Angle to be the most logical worker, although his unparalleled athletic ability and willingness to do anything make him a great worker. Here though, he explains psychology in a manner akin to Ricky Steamboat, Jake Roberts or even Raven. It made me really rethink of how I've perceived Kurt Angle over the years. I took him as a great athlete who understands working, but because he didn't grow up a fan, he misses aspects and makes character mistakes (specifically being put over as a buffoon all the time). Is he instead a "moron" who gets in the ring and become a "killer" as he puts it? I'm still not sure.

The Bad
RF Video strikes again. A great talker saves much of this, but the painfully basic questions, inability to follow-up on anything, and constant "I wanna talk to you about that...later" just kills this from being a perfect shoot. The parts that seemed weakest were: not actually knowing about his amateur career, not really pressing the development prior to debuting issue and never even mentioning his noteworthy Japanese matches since leaving the WWE. Kurt Angle was great, but again RF prevented this from being a five-star interview.

Friday, February 12, 2010

The Good
A fascinating book about one of pro-wrestling's greatest personalities. The insight into Richard Fleihr's personal life is really the breakthrough here, but the stories and opinions are fun to hear. A few are new and interesting, but for the most part it's what you'd expect. I question Flair's honesty from time-to-time, but I think on the whole he's very candid with his readers. The best WWE book thusfar and one that will be hard to top.

The Bad
Obviously I can knock this book in a bunch of different ways. How can a 350 page book really capture the lengthy and fascinating career of such a colorful character? Well, it can't. That fact alone tempts me to knock this down to a 4, but I hate to punish it on potential. There are probably hundreds of edited out stories and tangents that would have made this one of the greatest wrestling books ever, but there is an obvious absence. Flair's opinions on Bret Hart, Randy Savage and Mick Foley have caused notable backlash, but they're his opinions and I'd rather have them in there than unnecessarilly censored. Considering he went hard on them and light on people like Kevin Nash, Lex Luger and even Hulk Hogan to an extent is strange.The Rating: ****1/2

The Good
The title of this DVD is quite specific and makes someone interested in pro-wrestling history want to see it. If we add a few qualifiers than we can perhaps deal with what we're really getting here. “The Most Powerful Families (who have had at least a member under WWF/WWE contract) in Pro-Wrestling (of the past 25 years)”. The first family featured, the Ortons, is really fascinating and comprehensive, which certainly gives a lot of hope to the quality of this. Not every family featured is as good, but overall this is a strong product. The sheer number of people interviewed and the variety to those people adds greatly to this. You get everyone from Vince McMahon himself (whose insight is often wonderful) and Hulk Hogan to Gory Guerrero and Peter Maivia's wife and daughters. This is great overview of some of the most prominent pro-wrestling families. If you can set aside the reality of this being a WWE history recreation attempt, this is very good.

The Bad
Shockingly, this is hosted by a WWE underachiever and son of a legend in one small market. No its not Brian Christopher, Robert Fuller or Rene Dupree, although all three would've been preferable. It's Carlito (Colon) whose hosting is campy and adds nothing to this DVD. His lines are not funny, his only positive contributions are in the interview portions, it forever dates this DVD and his ties to Carlos Colon have never really been part of his persona. That aside, this “historical” DVD is quite lacking in accordance to its lofty title. If we're talking about families who were “powerful” in terms of having stroke, then it seems like you need to include some of those promoter/wrestler families. The Welch/Fuller/Fields/Golden clan is certainly pro-wrestling's most prolific family with early twenty members who promoted, wrestled and refereed throughout Tennessee, Alabama and elsewhere. Other families like: the Cormiers, the Duseks, the Farhats, the Garibaldis, the Poffos, the Scotts and the Smiths (Grizzly, Jake Roberts, etc.) all had families with promoters, bookers and/or top stars yet none of them were featured or even mentioned here. If we're talking about “powerful” families as in having physical strength, then it seems like the Steinborns (father Milo was a legendary strongman, while Dick was a top hand and booker) should be mentioned. There is definitely some gaps in the history, but we've come to expect that from WWE Home Video.

Monday, February 8, 2010

I came into a batch of shoot interviews from James Guttman's World Wrestling Insanity website (I owe you some money JG, but I'll give you some great free high praise for now). Guttman is definitely in the upper echelon of interviews I've heard. He may not be as tough as Gary Cubeta, as knowledgeable as Dave Meltzer, as personable as Sean Oliver (KC) or as hilarious as Dr. Keith Lipinski, but he has components of all four that make him excellent in his own way. His interviews tend to run 30 minutes to an hour, but few go much longer than that. Although you'd think that would limit their scope, he gets a lot in there and has clearly learned his craft unlike some others who've been doing it for YEARS! The audio quality is alright, but I won't squabble too much over that. The "what's going on by you?" and "anything to say to all the lil' (insert a Hulkamaniac-like name of the pro-wrestler's followers) out there?" lines are nice signatures and I've got nothing but good things to say about JG and the Radio-free Insanity, I'm even tempted to buy the book now!

I will review a couple standouts from the Club WWI archives and I strongly urge people to check it out.

The first one that really caught my ear during a long road trip was with former WCW Executive Vice-President and WWE personality, Eric Bischoff. This was before Bischoff's recent foray into TNA land.

The Good
Love him or hate him, Eric Bischoff is a great talker, a media-savvy businessman and a true visionary. He is also painful honest with his perspectives. JG is a knowledgeable and respectful interviewer who seemed to gain Bischoff's respect and therefore scored a great interview. I've heard Bischoff in several different places (from WOL and the LAW to WWE and professionally done documentaries) and he's never sounded for insightful. In just over an hour, he shows just why he was able to become a boss at WCW, take that company to new heights and explains how it fell apart. While his book has been blasted, this seems excellent to me. His use of the Von Dutch phenomenon to make a point shows how outside of the bubble he truly is.

The Bad
In all his honesty, Bischoff puts targets on himself. He has been said to have hated pro-wrestling, yet grew to respect it. That love-hate relationship gives him this quality that turns off many pro-wrestling enthusiasts. He really beats up on "dirt sheets," the Internet and pro-wrestling's core fans, which has to turn off 90% of the listeners. Although it's hard to compare a 65 minute interview to a 4 hour one, Eric Bischoff makes a very strong showing, but you really wish he'd do that career retrospective, fantasy booking or whatever shoot that could expose the goods that his book apparently lacked.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The GoodIn a fashion befitting the “Rated R Superstar,” this compilation of matches is set up with Edge playing his usual arrogant self watching his old matches from his easy chair on the big screen. Video packages are recut as film trailers, which is unique and funny. The match choices are good with a nice variety of pay-per-view and TV matches. One can really see Edge's growth as a worker in the early matches and metamorphosis as a heel in the later matches. If someone is a big fan of Edge, even if you have the matches already, this is worth checking out.

The BadThese matches with little commentaries in between are okay and clearly an attempt to make some extra change off superstars while their hot. That said, they tend to seem thrown together and lack much new content worth dropping the money for which they are marked as in stores. Edge appearing in character is funny and all, but it totally takes away any depth this could have. There is not really much insight shared and minimal comments from others. While Edge was a good talent who blossomed into a top-notch heel, is he yet worthy of such an extensive collection? Maybe and there are probably “Edgeheads” who'd argue that he is. Personally, the lack of pre-WWF material is objectionable, but understandable. Perhaps there are not decent quality independent matches of Sexton Hardcastle or even footage of him working at the Funkin' Dojos. Regardless, it seems odd to have a retrospective DVD set that has only WWF/WWE matches.